Lucille:And perhaps if we allow them to be,
they’ll be enough, you know? Why do we think
that we need to be so favored in the universe that
we are guaranteed tremendous happiness at all
costs?
Michael: Lucille, when I think back over the
last several years, I’m really astonished by what
you have been through and how well you have
survived.
Lucille:You know, sometimes I think that
too!
Michael: You have come through cancer and
chemotherapy, kidney failure, dialysis, kidney
transplant—you’ve been looking at death for five
years. How do you deal with that?
Lucille:Well, I think about death a fair
amount. But what I’m saying to myself is, I’m
not going to go out like this. And I’m beginning
to do things that I used to do when I was
younger, like listening to jazz, going to the Blue
Note. I haven’t done something like that in so
many years. All those things, and suddenly I
think, ‘‘I enjoyed life very much as a young
woman.’’ I just enjoyed fun, and I want to
enjoy it again.
Michael: You never really had a chance to get
back to that...
Lucille:No, no.
Michael: After Fred died you were too busy
being a mother and a poet?
Lucille:I think it wasn’t until I went to the
book fair in L.A. last year that I found myself
suddenly feeling like I was doing things that
Lucille did. I’m really enjoying doing these
things again...
Source:Michael S. Glaser, ‘‘I’d Like Not to Be a Stranger
in the World: A Conversation/Interview with Lucille
Clifton,’’ inAntioch Review, Vol. 58, No. 3, Summer
2000, pp. 310–28.
Charles H. Rowell
In the following excerpt from an interview, Clifton
discusses her life and her poetry.
ROWELL: I want to make a confession to
you.
CLIFTON:Okay.
ROWELL: And it has to do with one of your
early poems,‘‘miss rosie.’’
CLIFTON:Oh, uh-huh.
ROWELL: I have carried Miss Rosie in my
head all of these years. She personally represents
our ancestors, our common past. When I think of
her, I am given strength to move forward on the
shoulders of those who went before us, those who
prepared the way for us—the ancestors who
struggled, survived, and prevailed. I want to read
the complete poem.
...I think Miss Rosie’s is one of those ‘‘ter-
rible stories’’ that you referred to earlier. And our
standing on her shoulders—and those of so many
of the ancestors like her—signifies many more of
those ‘‘terrible stories.’’
CLIFTON:It is terrible...
ROWELL: Throughout your collections,
you’ve been telling these terrible stories. Yes, I
want to confess to you that I have carried Miss
Rosie with me all of these years and that she has
been very important to me.
CLIFTON:But she is important to us all.
You know, the whole idea that, ‘‘Look, I’m
where I am because somebody was before me,
and that somebody suffered so that I might get
here. And whether or not they suffered so I could
be here is irrelevant. The fact that that happened
is what has helped me to be here.’’ It seems
important for us to remember that. Well, for
me it’s important to remember that I never in
my life have worked as hard as my mother did.
Never. And my mother did not work as hard as
her mother did. A lot of people have said to me
in the early years that they thought I didn’t like
Miss Rosie; and I can’t understand why they
would think such a thing, when I honor her
and recognize my debt. And there was a lady
who was Miss Rosie. There’re a lot of ladies
who are or were. And I honor them. Because I
can’t drive, when I was in Baltimore, I had a man
who drove me around all the time. He was in his
70s. He wasn’t a very good driver, but he was so
interesting. He would drive me and my kids. One
time he said, ‘‘You know what I don’t under-
stand?’’ and I said, ‘‘What?’’ and he said, ‘‘I don’t
understand why these young kids’’—this is in theBUT THE FIRST POEM I EVER WROTE THAT I
REMEMBER—I THOUGHT ‘NOW, I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS
A POEM OR NOT BUT THIS IS WHAT I SOUND LIKE....’’’homage to my hips